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Bobby Jenks Signs With Boston

Bobby Jenks signed with the Boston Red Sox earlier today. Contrary to popular belief, there are still worthwhile right-handed relievers on the market. To prove this, I took a number of relievers (11 total) from a free agents list. From there, I collected their innings total over the last three seasons as well as their FIP during each of those seasons. I then weighted their FIP based on their innings workload. So as to not punish (or reward) players too strongly for shortened seasons. The results are below – note that the red line is where Jenks would’ve placed if this post had went up last night:

One of the best? Certainly, not the only option though. Now, you can argue that FIP isn’t the best way to evaluate pitchers and what have you, but the point should remain regardless of your evaluation metric of choice: the Rays have options. The best-case scenario here is probably the return of Grant Balfour, although taking a chance on Takashi Saito – or signing someone like Jon Rauch – would make a ton of sense as well.

Jenks would’ve fit the Rays. He would’ve been welcomed with open arms. Ultimately, the team didn’t close the deal for whatever reasons. Pick the conjecture of your choice, just know that there’s many other fish in the bullpen candidate sea.